While the prices of many vegetables are rising, Vietnam’s cabbages and bell peppers have plunged disastrously. They have pushed many farmers into heavy losses.
In recent days, the prices of vegetables in Lạc Dương District (Lâm Đồng) have fluctuated significantly. There are large disparities between different products. Specifically, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and cauliflower are selling at high prices ranging from 17,000 to 35,000 đồng per kilogram. Meanwhile, Vietnamese cabbages have dropped to 1,000 đồng per head, and bell peppers have fallen to 8,000 đồng per kilogram.
Vietnam’s cabbages
Mr. Ngô Nguyễn Đạt is a farmer, who is cultivating one hectare of cabbage in Quảng Lập Commune. He said that since the Lunar New Year, his family could not sell any vegetables despite prices hitting rock bottom. Vietnam’s cabbages are now more than a week past their ideal harvest time and are starting to crack.
“Even at 1,000 đồng per head, no one will buy them. Before Lunar New Year, traders put down a 5-million-đồng deposit intending to purchase the entire field. However, they have now backed out and forfeited the deposit,” Mr. Đạt said. He said each cabbage weighs 2–4 kg and sold for 4,000–5,000 đồng before the holiday.
Last year, his family earned nearly 300 million đồng from their one-hectare field of Vietnam’s cabbages. “This year, since I can’t sell anything, I have decided to chop up the whole field for compost. This season, I am losing about 60–70 million đồng,” he said sorrowfully.
Vietnamese cabbage farm
Mr. Minh Ngọc is the owner of a vegetable trading facility in Quảng Lập Commune. He said traders are currently purchasing only tomatoes and onions at stable prices. The selling pricess of tomatoes and onions are 10,000 đồng per kilogram at the farm. Because of low demand of bell peppers or cabbages, Minh Ngọc’s facility is not buying them to avoid losses.
A household growing bell peppers in Đơn Dương District said that at this time last year, bell peppers sold well and reached prices of up to 30,000 đồng per kilogram. At that price level, farmers could earn hundreds of millions of đồng per hectare. With current prices, bell pepper growers cannot even recover their investment costs.
Đơn Dương District is the largest specialized vegetable-growing area in Lâm Đồng Province. The district covers tens of thousands of hectares under cultivation. For many years, it has supplied vegetables year-round to markets both inside and outside the country. The development of key crops such as cabbage, kohlrabi, napa cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and potatoes—when market prices were stable—has helped many families prosper.
Bell chili from Vietnam
According to agricultural trading facilities, cabbage and bell pepper prices have fallen. This is because many other regions in the country are also producing these crops. In addition, the outbreak of the acute respiratory disease nCoV-19 has disrupted exports of these vegetables to markets such as China and Cambodia. As a result, traders have simultaneously stopped purchasing.
Tou Prong Nay Khoan is the Deputy Head of the Đơn Dương District Agriculture Office. He said the locality currently has around 27,000 hectares of commercial vegetable cultivation, with an annual output of about 915,981 tons. After the Lunar New Year, crops such as cabbage, bell peppers, onions, chili peppers, and tomatoes enter their peak harvest season.
Vietnamese source: https://nongnghiepmoitruong.vn/bap-cai-gia-1000dong-bap-nong-dan-dinh-bam-nho-u-lam-phan-d257513.html